When Thora opened her eyes again, she was back in the real-world assessment hall. Countless pods opened up as candidates emerged one after another. She removed her helmet and stepped out of the device. "Thora!" "Boss!" Tristan, Shirley, and the others immediately crowded around her. Even though they'd just seen each other in the game, seeing one another in the flesh finally put their minds at ease. Thora ruffled Shirley's hair and gave them all a slight nod. Looking up, she noticed all the candidates were walking toward her, their eyes shining bright. Some of the examiners were also approaching.While she was still wondering what was going on, Valen emerged from the crowd dressed in a deep blue military uniform adorned with the Blue Star Military Academy insignia. He stopped a short distance in front of her, his voice seasoned and commanding, "Welcome back." The moment he finished speaking, all the examiners broke into spontaneous applause. The applause of soldiers carried an infectious power that instantly electrified the entire hall. The candidates quickly joined in. Jeremy smiled to himself. This was probably a first in Blue Star Military Academy history—a candidate who'd barely scraped in receiving this kind of treatment. If word of this reached headquarters, no one would believe it. Thora paused for a moment, then looked at Valen and nodded politely. "Thank you." That humble and courteous gesture won her even more favor. In everyone's eyes, she possessed both strength and character—a shining presence no matter where she went. ... Outside the game building, Roxen had just opened his car door when Mike caught up from behind. "Roxen, I heard the admission list is already out. Why are you leaving?" A playful smile curved at the corner of Roxen's lips as he turned to look at Mike. "The military academy headquarters will be far more interesting than this place soon enough. So I've lost interest in sticking around here." Before he even finished speaking, he started the sports car. The engine roared to life and the car shot off into the distance. The moment he'd seen the admission list, he'd decided to leave—after all, the next time they'd meet would only be at the military academy. ... In the final round of assessment, Blue Star Military Academy only admitted the top 50 on the leaderboard.Thora had made it in at exactly 15th place, and combined with her excellent ratings from the first two rounds, she was successfully admitted. But the impression that ultimately spread was that "Thora scraped into Blue Star Military Academy at dead last." Those who knew the truth understood just how heart-pounding that ranking had been, and they couldn't help but cheer for her—she'd been playing with fire yet again. Those who didn't know the details simply assumed she was the weakest of this batch of freshmen. On this year's admission list, Tristan and Ryan had secured spots in the top ten, Shirley and Luke ranked in the top 15, and first and second place went to Ashley and Draven respectively. Strangely enough, after the game ended, Thora never saw Draven again. She had quite a few questions about him lingering in her mind.How had he happened to show up at the downtown building in the game? It was as if he'd known ahead of time that a control center was there. And throughout their interactions, she could clearly sense that Draven was unusually familiar with the game. This led her to a suspicion—the game itself might be connected to the Blackwoods, or more precisely, to Skybound Group. Skybound Group was already a commercial titan in the Astralis Empire, and their holographic technology was industry-leading. A secret partnership with Blue Star Military Academy wasn't out of the question. That would explain why Draven knew the game so well. But this was only Thora's speculation. She had no proof. Besides, Draven had vanished without a trace, and the academy wouldn't interfere with a candidate's comings and goings—as long as they were admitted, they could enroll whenever they wanted.Lance, on the other hand, had been present the entire time. Thora knew Lance wouldn't show up here without a reason. There had to be something he wanted at Blue Star Military Academy. Mercenaries never did anything that didn't serve their interests, and as the core leader of Greywolf, Lance was no exception. She normally didn't like getting involved in other people's business, but she was curious about Lance's true purpose here. Especially since—this was the guy who'd deliberately screwed her over and made her come in dead last. There was no way that wasn't intentional. Thora even suspected that Lance had collected all 12 cards long ago and had waited for her to just barely crack the top 50 before activating the "Tears of Gods" to end the game. And that was exactly what had happened.Ashley—or more accurately, Lance—glanced at her with a faint smile playing at his lips, his eyes brimming with smug satisfaction. If that wasn't deliberate, Thora would eat her own hat on livestream. ... After the admission list was announced, all eliminated candidates were sent back to Tohmont. But the academy staff still faced one thorny problem—the candidates who had "died" in the game during the virus outbreak were still in comas. Dozens of people lay neatly arranged on hospital beds. No matter what medical equipment they used, nothing could wake them. The examination team was at a complete loss. The matter had already been reported to military academy headquarters, but it would take at least a few hours for someone to arrive. In the meantime, no one could guarantee that something wouldn't go wrong.Thora stepped forward and spoke up, "Can I take a look at them?"